“The important thing is for the people in China to know that they are not alone, that we stand in solidarity with them, that we will continue to be relentless in our advocacy of their rights, until those rights are secured, as I have said to Chinese leaders before and will continue to say it.” said MP Irwin Cotler, who served as Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada between 2003 and 2006.

MP Irwin Cotler, former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada

More than 100,000 criminal complaints against Jiang Zemin have been submitted to the Supreme Court and Supreme Procuratorate in China, according to information received by the Minghui website. Among them, over 1,000 come from Chinese who are currently living overseas, from 24 countries.

“Falun Gong Represents the Best of Ancient and Exemplary Chinese Values”

“China is an economic superpower. It is also aspiring to be a political superpower,” Cotler said, “But the important thing is that it should also be a moral superpower. Otherwise it will undercut both the economic and political aspirations that it has.”

“Falun Gong represents the best of ancient and exemplary Chinese values, the values of compassion and care, and tolerance and forbearance. So I would hope that the Chinese authorities will see that Falun Gong represents an asset to their aspirations to being seen as a moral superpower. And their persecution and prosecution of Falun Gong effectively undermines China’s aspirations of being an economic superpower, a political superpower, and a moral superpower,” Cotler said.

He hopes that as the Chinese leadership roots out corruption, it isn’t just being done for domestic political considerations or internal party rivalries and the like. He said, “But they’ll understand that there is another culture of corruption, and that is the undermining of human rights, and the undermining of human rights across the board—whether it be in terms of the imprisonment of human rights defenders, or whether it be in the persecution and prosecution of Falun Gong.”

Global Awareness of Live Organ Harvesting

One particular aspect is organ harvest from living Falun Gong practitioners. “I want to single out the efforts of my colleagues David Kilgour and David Matas in the matter of organ harvesting, I think they have made this an international issue. I think they’ve mobilized awareness and understanding, and support with regard to sanctioning China respecting the matter of organ harvesting.”

“I think we will see more European parliamentarians, American congress people, and Canadian parliamentarians becoming more aware and more committed to do something about it, [as in] resolutions we have passed in our Foreign Affairs Subcommittee and international human rights private member’s bill that I introduced. So I see that as a case study, as mobilization of advocacy in order to sanction China for its human rights violations, whether it be the organ harvesting or whether it be the repression of the Falun Gong, or whether it be the suppression of dissent.”

“So I think what we need to ensure is that officials are put on trial not only for the crime of corruption where that occurs, but also they are put on trial for the crime of domestic repression for the violation of the rights of citizens, for the prosecution and persecution of Falun Gong. The record has to state the total nature of the criminality.”

A Change in China Is Inevitable

MP Wayne Marston, vice chair of the House Subcommittee for International Human Rights, agrees with Cotler, “There seems to be people being held accountable for some of the grievances that took place in the last number of years, but I’m not hearing anything about those people who were involved with the organ harvesting being part of that.”

MP Wayne Marston, vice chair of the House Subcommittee for International Human Rights

“There has been significant evidence put out over the years about the organ harvesting. We’ve had at our subcommittee and international human rights a number of testimonies in regard to that, from a variety of very trustworthy people.”

He said the criminal lawsuits against Jiang will have an effect. “The number of complaints against him is of course something that needs to be considered by the Chinese government.”

“I’m sure they [Chinese officials] are well aware of some of the past situations, and if there’s evidence to back these claims they should proceed on them.” Marston said there is a momentum for change happening in China on a number of different levels. “The economic level is the most obvious to the rest of the world. There’s a transition in the government attitude on a number of fronts, and a lot of that is driven by people.” He believes that the criminal complaints will have a relatively positive outcome.

He said that a change in China is inevitable. “So the concerns are well established that way internationally. The big thing is hope for change. People in the international community would encourage the Chinese government to continue with the change.”

Those Who Practice Organ Harvesting Will Be Brought to Justice

Tyrone Benskin, another MP at the Subcommittee on International Human Rights, said, “First and foremost we stand by our statement condemning the practice of organ harvesting. It’s a practice which is unfathomable in terms of human rights and human dignity. The practice itself needs to be uncovered. It needs to be brought out into the light of day. And the supporters of such practices need to be brought to justice for these actions.”

MP Tyrone Benskin, also from Subcommittee on International Human Rights, emphasized the positive effect of lawsuits against Jiang.

He expects that more criminal complaints will follow. “As these individuals bring their cases and file their suits against those that they feel have wronged them, the more that do this, the more their voices will be heard.”

“And as things slowly-unfortunately-begin to change, it’s those voices that will manifest that change. Those who practice organ harvesting or have been the orchestrators of this heinous practice will eventually be brought to justice.”

(Minghui.org) A prominent human rights expert, Australia’s former Human Rights Commissioner Dr. Sev Ozdowski wrote a letter in support of Falun Gong practitioners’ taking legal action against former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin. To date, over 103,000 individuals have filed criminal complaints with the Supreme People’s Procuratorate and the Supreme People’s Court of China, charging Jiang with unlawful imprisonment, depriving citizens of their constitutional right to freedom of belief, abuse of power, and many other crimes.

Dr. Sev Ozdowski OAM (Order of Australia Medal) was the Australian Human Rights Commissioner from 2000 to 2005. He currently serves as president of the Australian Council for Human Rights Education.

Dr. Sev Ozdowski OAM, President of the Australian Council for Human Rights Education

Dr. Ozdowski’s letter was written for a rally held in Sydney to support the current surge in criminal complaints from Chinese Falun Gong practitioners around the world. Given that China is one of a few countries in the world still ruled by communism, and where there is no rule of law, he applauded practitioners’ use of the country’s legal system to bring Jiang Zemin to justice.

“The persecution of Falun Gong practitioners, which started in 1999, has all the hallmarks of genocide,” Dr. Ozdowski wrote. “It was well documented in a report by David Kilgour, former Canadian MP and Secretary of State for Asia-Pacific, and human rights lawyer David Matas that Falun Gong practitioners are killed so their corneas, hearts and lungs, livers, and kidneys could be stolen for sale to commercial customers.

“When you look back (in history), people win against oppression, and you will win,” he wrote. “Just do what you do, stay strong and continue to lodge complaints; continue demanding more human rights for yourselves!”

Dr. Ozdowski believes that the wave of criminal complaints filed against Jiang Zemin can help people in China to gain confidence in the legal system.

“Across a lot of our planet we still have got the communist party in charge; we still do not have the rule of Law,” he wrote. “What’s happening [with the criminal complaints] is good! It’s building people’s confidence in the legal system, it’s allowing them to say what they think, but it’s far from enough. We need to go much further.” Dr. Ozdowski believes that Jiang Zemin has committed crimes against humanity, and “to him due process of the criminal law should apply.”

Dr. Ozdowski also commended Australian television station SBS TV for airing “Human Harvest” on its Dateline program. This award-winning documentary exposes the Chinese regime’s harvesting organs of persecuted Falun Gong practitioners and other prisoners of conscience.

“It is necessary to publicly expose the crime of organ harvesting in China in order to stop it,” said Ozdowski.

Background

In 1999, Jiang Zemin, as head of the Chinese Communist Party, overrode other Politburo standing committee members and launched the violent suppression of Falun Gong.

The persecution has led to the deaths of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners over the past 16 years. More have been tortured for their belief and even killed for their organs. Jiang Zemin is directly responsible for the inception and continuation of the brutal persecution.

Under his personal direction, the Chinese Communist Party established an extralegal security organ, the “610 Office,” on June 10, 1999. The organization overrides police forces and the judicial system in carrying out Jiang’s directive regarding Falun Gong: to ruin their reputations, cut off their financial resources, and destroy them physically.

Chinese law now allows for citizens to be plaintiffs in criminal cases, and many practitioners are exercising that right to file criminal complaints against the former dictator.

(Minghui.org) A customer of mine, Zhang, often stopped by my place of business. He was the secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for a village.

My sister-in-law and I are both Falun Dafa practitioners, and we told him that we follow the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance in our business and don’t take anything that doesn’t belong to us.

Falun Dafa is embraced in over 100 countries, and people have benefited a lot from practicing Dafa’s principles. The CCP is atheistic, and does not care about committing acts of genocide against the Chinese people. Yet despite the danger of arrest and imprisonment, Falun Dafa practitioners still try to tell people about the unjust persecution.

My friend Zhang understood and quit the CCP and its affiliated associations. He no longer wanted to support a murderous entity like the Chinese Communist Party.

One day he was sitting in his truck waiting his turn in line at a truck weigh station. The driver in front of him dropped some cash on the truck scale without noticing it. Zhang found it while he was weighing his truck and told me about it as he came into my shop. We counted 9,300 yuan (approximately $1497.00) in total. Shortly, a man rushed into my shop stuttering as he said, “I am in so much trouble! I lost the money to purchase the shipment. What am I going to do?” He told us he lost 9,300 yuan, which was the amount of cash Zhang picked up.

Zhang turned to me and smiled, “I know of Falun Dafa’s principles. I ought not to take what is not mine.” He gave the money back to the driver. The driver was so grateful that he insisted on giving Zhang 100 yuan to thank him. Zhang smiled and looked at me, “I won’t take what’s not mine?” I smiled back at him. Zhang kept the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance in his heart.

Upon learning how virtuous Falun Dafa is, and how vicious the CCP is, the truck driver who lost the money decided to disassociate himself from the CCP and renounced his membership.